Many outdoor events, but also street closings and Metro delays: the weekend and beyond

Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche (25) catches a throw from Nationals Ian Desmond (20) against Cubs Tony Campana (1) for the 3rd out of the 5th inning as the Nationals defeat the Cubs 9 - 2 at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. Sept. 6, 2012.
(John McDonnell - The Washington Post)
We may be moving out of summer, but this is a busy weekend for outdoor activities in the D.C. area. The Nationals have a weekend series at Nationals Park, athletes will participate in the Nation’s Triathlon and thousands will enjoy Sunday’s Adams Morgan Day Festival. (See a full listing of weekend events in the Going Out Guide.)

This is also a very active time for road and transit projects that could affect your travels this weekend and into the work week.

On Sunday’s Commuter page in the Post’s Metro section, I’ll have some tips on dealing with the after-summer congestion we call September Shock. But this weekend, look out for the Metro track work, especially on the Red Line, and for some changes in traffic patterns across the region.

The Capital Weather Gang is looking at a muggy start to the weekend, with a chance of storms, but Sunday could end up much cooler and drier.

Metro weekend delays

All work begins at 10 p.m. Friday and continues through Metrorail’s midnight closing Sunday.

Red Line: The Metro weekend maintenance program calls for a suspension of train service between Dupont Circle and NoMa-Gallaudet University. A free shuttle bus service will be in operation, but the buses will be going through the heart of D.C., and that’s likely to mean a significant increase in travel time.

Between Shady Grove and Dupont Circle, and between Glenmont and NoMa-Gallaudet University, trains are scheduled to operate every 10 minutes between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, and at regular weekend intervals at other times.

In between, the free buses will operate along two routes.

One route will go between Dupont Circle, Metro Center, Gallery Place and NoMa-Gallaudet University only. Metro estimates that a trip from one end to the other will add half an hour to normal travel times.

Another route will stop at all the affected stations. Don’t take this if you want to go the entire route, because Metro estimates it will take about 50 minutes.

Orange Line: Trains will share tracks through two work zones. One will be between East Falls Church and West Falls Church, and the other, between Stadium-Armory and Cheverly. Orange Line trains are scheduled to operate every 24 minutes, but add about 15 minutes for travel through a work zone, Metro says.

Yellow Line: Trains will share a track between Huntington and Braddock Road. Yellow Line trains will be scheduled to operate every 16 minutes, but add about 10 minutes for the work zone. The trains will terminate at Mount Vernon Square, rather than continuing north to Fort Totten, as they normally would on a weekend.

New ramps are scheduled to open this weekend to provide a direct connection between the eastbound Dulles Airport Access Highway and the Beltway’s inner and outer loops.

This is a most welcome development. Even before the start of construction for the 495 Express Lanes project, this interchange could be a nightmare for drivers on both the airport highway and on the Dulles Toll Road.

The access highway, the free route to Dulles International Airport for airport users, is in the middle of the eastbound and westbound lanes of the toll road, one of the main east-west routes for commuters and an important connection with the Beltway.

Approaching the Beltway, the drivers on the airport highway must cross over many lanes of toll road traffic to reach the ramps for the inner and outer loops.

Now the Virginia Department of Transportation, which has been supervising the construction, is turning over the ramps to the airports authority, and the ramps are scheduled to open to drivers on Saturday.

Tysons ramp reopens

Drivers also will encounter a major change at a key interchange in the middle of Tysons Corner. The Dulles Metrorail project announced the reopening of the long-closed ramp that leads from southbound Route 123 to westbound Route 7. The change in the traffic pattern is possible because the rail tunnel for the Silver Line is completed.

Beltway/Telegraph Road

The Capital Beltway’s THRU and LOCAL lanes now are completely open, but the Wilson Bridge project continues to work on the Telegraph Road interchange. From 9 p.m. Friday through 9 p.m. Saturday, the ramps from Telegraph Road to the outer loop will be closed.

New York Avenue bridge

Drivers will be able to use only single lanes in each direction at the New York Avenue bridge between Florida Avenue and Penn Street NE from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.

The work underway this weekend is part of the long-term rehabilitation of the bridge over the railroad tracks north of Union Station.Leeland Road station parking

Virginia Railway Express issued an advisory about the parking lot repairs at the Leeland Road station on the Fredericksburg Line. VRE says parking anywhere except in the gravel lot over this weekend is prohibited. Workers will be painting the stripes on the paved parking spaces as one of the final steps in the project, which should be done by Sept. 19.

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